Ellie Leach has broken her silence on Strictly Come Dancing during its scandal.
23-year-old Ellie won the BBC One show last year alongside her dance partner Vito Coppola. In doing so, the former Coronation Street star became the youngest ever champ of the programme, which has been dogged by its complaints scandal.
Strictly has been engulfed in drama of late following allegations of misconduct against the show’s professional dancers – an internal probe has been launched to investigate the claims. However, Ellie Leach had nothing but positive words to say about her time on the show.
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The actress offered a heartfelt five-word response summing up how special Strictly is to her. “Strictly has changed my life,” she told the Yorkshire Post in an interview plugging her theatre show Cluedo 2, based on the board game Cluedo.
Ellie said: “Strictly has changed my life. When I say that, I think that people are a little bit shocked as they think it is ‘just’ a dance competition, where it’s completely not like that.
“It made me really, really learn a lot about myself and kind of change the way that I think about things. I think I genuinely do think that without Strictly I wouldn’t have said yes to maybe even doing Cluedo.
“When I got the call it sounded amazing, but I would have been very nervous to step out of my comfort zone, whereas now I’m kind of forcing myself to do that. I feel like before I was kind of like a ‘no’ person, because I was scared of what’s going to happen, whereas now I’m like, ‘Just say yes’, because you never know the opportunities that you might have and the experiences that you might get.
The BBC’s director general Tim Davie apologised to celebs who had an experience on the show that “hasn’t been wholly positive”. He said he was “disappointed” to hear that they had complained about how they were treated by their dance partners.
Sherlock actress Amanda Abbington claimed her former dance partner Giovanni was “bullying and aggressive” towards her in rehearsals. Pernice on the other hand has denied claims of “threatening and abusive behaviour”.
Axed show pro Graziano Di Prima has apologised for kicking his former dance partner Zara McDermott in rehearsals. His spokesperson Mark Borkowski said: “There is never a time when kicking, or any sense of that is right, and he knows that. He knows he’s made a mistake. He apologised at the time.”
raziano has apologised for kicking his former dance partner Zara McDermott in rehearsals. His spokesperson Mark Borkowski said: “There is never a time when kicking, or any sense of that is right, nd he knows that.”
“He knows he’s made a mistake. He apologised at the time.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk